Yes, Mario Lemieux is probably in the best shape of his life.But no, he's not coming back.

-- An anonymous commentor delved into the archives of his soul to find this gem. [ PG ]

In a Q&A session with Dave Molinari,Jeff Kraus from Richmond, Virginia, asked this:

"Considering that this is hockey preseason, there's only two questions to ask:Have you seen Mario Lemieux, and is he in the best shape of his life?"-- For those not familiar with the context, in Pittsburgh every year, someone else or Mario himself would say he is in the best shape of his life.

"That's the only way I can play this game, at the highest level," Lemieux said. "And right now, with the condition that everyone in the league is in, you have to be in the best shape of your life if you want to play at a high level. I have to be able to compete with these young, fast players, and I realized that early this summer and prepared myself accordingly to give myself the best chance to be successful."

One of the dangers of looking for this is you can get lost in the rabbit hole that is the Post-Gazette Penguins archive.

Check out this lead sentence in Dave Molinari's opening for the [ 2003 preview ]

"When the Penguins hired Olczyk as head coach, it was a move that seemed to defy logic."

46
comments:

So no word on who's replacing Sid at the All-Star game yet? If i was the Pens, I'd be marketing Geno all over the place. Or atleast trying. He will be the man for the next couple weeks, so why not let everyone know that we still have a world class center on our roster who's not hurt? He's no Sid, but he is solid.You can bet that Malkin wants to show up his buddy, expecially since the "sid vs AO" game cant be played. look for another otherworldy performance by Geno tonight.

Morning y'all... good read for Monday morning as usual. Heh, I like that photoshop by the caps fan. I think I'll come back to post something that means something later. I can barely make out the words on the screen.

did anybody else notice in the highlight video coffey blowing at least two shots by goalies with the black iron city ad as his backdrop??? coincidence??? i imagine a goalie having a pretty hard time picking up a puck shot from that direction... genius...

I still maintain that the goal Mario scored against Quebec in that highlight film was the best of his career. He's literally being tackled by two Nordiques and he still finds the strength to lift the puck above the glove of the goalie.

After seeing that Acid Queen/Chris Crocker video, I feel like I should start paying Pensblog weekly installments of "protection" money, like a guy who runs a deli in Jersey would give Paulie Walnuts. You know, just in case...

Sid had a painful treatment and gets an MRI Monday. Yikes. Poor Sid. No fun wondering whats going on right now. Godspeed Sid. In Malks we trust. Thump the Caps boys do it for Sid. You know he would be out there if he could.

Lawrence Tynes is a joke and there is no way the Giants will win the Super Bowl with him kicking for them.

He used to kick for the Chiefs and he would always blow important kicks in close, important games (which he almost did last night.) Somehow, someway he managed to hit the last FG and become the hero instead of the scapegoat, which is what he should be.

I hate him so much that I have officially switched form supporting whatever team is playing against the Patriots to supporting the Patriots just so Lawrence Tynes will not win the Super Bowl. The bonus, of course, is that a Manning will also lose but god damn I hate Lawrence Tynes and I want to see his team decimated.

After the Tampon Bay game those degenerate perverted Crapitols fans mustered a temporary pair of testicles and started jobbing on the PENS and Sid. They actually think that between AO and their Hep C that they will beat us. Apparently they were out bangin their siblings when we shut out those maple sucking moose F***ers!GO PENS!

This isn't comment more so a question. The penguin logo that somone came up with for the winter classic. It has the WWGRD band around it's upper arm. I wanna know who created it. I make T-shirts and think it would sell like hotcakes. Please email me back ASAP @ RJNolte@gmail.com

oh yeah, Hip, I heard him this summer talking about whats his face and the bloody sock. I couldn't believe that he ended up doing baseball. He has such a great voice for hockey, I miss it. At least he's still on NHL08 so I get to hear him there.

Does anyone else think that if Malkin is offered a spot for the all star game he should just slap them in the face with it? I mean it's kind of insulting since they waited this long. Geno is better than that.

1. Got a good laugh from that NHL Public Relations Disaster Advisory thing. Not bad...not bad.

2. I'd be very careful of the reports coming from "sources" about Sid's treatement and injury. A very good friend of mine was an hour away from ending his rotation at Mercy Hospital the morning that Roethlisberger bounced his bike off that lady's car. He was there when they brought him in and within literally seconds of the hospital confirming that it was Roethlisberger (my buddy said you couldn't recognize him because his face was bloody and so swollen), the place was put on DEFCON-5 type lockdown. The only people with access to Roethlisberger were family members, SOME members of Steelers management and doctors exclusively on his treatment team. All info released to the press could come only from those doctors and had to be cleared through the Steelers and family first.

I'm not saying it's this way with Sid...my guess is though that the Canadian press is crawling all over the hospital looking for anyone that'll talk and they're running with it to some point.

3. How could you not love places like Le Colisee? One thing I always loved about the NHL when I was growing up was that it existed in places like Calgary, Hartford, Winnipeg, Quebec City...places that you normally didn't see with other major-league pro clubs in other leagues. And I miss some of those old arenas...like Winnipeg Arena, the Aud in Buffalo.

Thankfully, they're still using Le Colisee for junior games. In fact, that's where Angelo Esposito's been playing his home games. How sweet is that place? I love that they kept the old Nordiques red, white and blue seats.

4. How great was that Sabotage video? Once I complete my season in my Pens franchise on NHL '08, I'm renaming my first five draft picks Stewart Wallace, Nathan Wind, Allesandro Alegre (sounds like a defenseman who played his junior hockey Val d'Or or something), Vic Colfari and Fred Kelly.

5. Spent yesterday out at the Cinemark theaters in Monaca taking in the brilliant piece of art that was "Cloverfield". I'm still reeling from it. What a rollercoaster ride that movie was. I haven't seen anything that intense since the first fifteen minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" or maybe the attack/initial response scenes in "World Trade Center".

It should and hopefully will be the end of the cheesetastic monster/disaster movies that we saw with the likes of Godzilla (the horrible remake with Matthew Broderick). If you go in expecting everything to be handed to you on a platter, you'll be disappointed. You have to figure out a lot of what's going on by yourself, because the only thing you really know that the characters don't is that at some point, something happens to New York City and all hell breaks loose. You know the attack is coming, but you learn what it is about the same time the characters do. And while you know it's a monster, you don't really see it until the characters see it for the first time.

Absolutely a visceral, edge-of-your-seat experience that has left quite a bit of room for some future movies (pay close attention to the ocean during the final Coney Island scenes, and make sure you sit all the way through the credits...I didn't and I will be making a return trip to pick up everything that I missed).

Hey look at how well most of the call ups have been playing, no reason these three can't contribute as well. Gotta stay optimistic! I guess.

I made the Injury Bug photoshop, it's supposed to animate. It's not animating in my browser (Safari), but when I click on it and open it in it's own window it animates. So if it's not animating for anyone else, click on it and get the full experience! Thanks to Pensblog for putting it up.

By the way....in the last comment section after the Montreal win, PolishKid said...

"BlogStaff, good note on the three stars. I know they really mean nothing in the long run, but it just goes to show how in denial even the media was that their invinceable Habs were shut out by a Crosby-less Penguins team."

They don't mean that much to Americans, but in Canada they keep track of those stars and give-out awards at the end of the season. So to them, it is a big deal.... which makes their ignorance of Malkin's game even more pathetic.

seeker: I haven't heard that bit about awards given based on those stars.

If that's the case, then how do they deal with this situation - the Montreal media gave Komisarek the third star, but CBC gave the third star to Malkin, with the first and second stars being the same for both lists. Do Huet and Sabou get two points and Komisarek and Malkin just one?

Honestly, I just think that the Montreal media gave the third star to Komisarek because he did play fairly well, the game was in Montreal, and they wanted their fans to at least feel a little better, despite being shutout by the injured Pens. To me, it's not a big deal, but that's just me..

4. How great was that Sabotage video? Once I complete my season in my Pens franchise on NHL '08, I'm renaming my first five draft picks Stewart Wallace, Nathan Wind, Allesandro Alegre (sounds like a defenseman who played his junior hockey Val d'Or or something), Vic Colfari and Fred Kelly.

Of the top of my head, Sir Stewart Wallace was played by himself (and as a special appearance, no less), Nathan Wind played Cochese, Vic Colfari was Bobby "The Rookie", and Fred Kelly was Bunny. I don't know who played double-A. I may have to go cheaterblog and youtube the video.

That Caps photoshop is pretty funny, but after poking around a bit on the Caps message board, I have to say that it is a little scary how obsessed with all things Crosby/Pens those people are. I think they talk more about the Pens than they do their own team.

I think perhaps they take the rivalry a little more seriously than we do. Not surprising since we constantly beat them and turn two games a year in DC into Pens home games.

BNG66, that's a given, but if I'm home and I get bored with what's on Sirius (read: tired of flipping around, depending on my mood), I'll put "The Worldwide Leader" on as background noise. I heard Crosby's name and was thinking they'd actually do a story when they mentioned his name into the commercial.

I forget where I heard it: here, LGP, or another board I post on, but ESPN is to sports as Weekly World News is to legit news.